Staff Backend Engineer

Giga; New York (NY); On-site; USD 300,000 - 500,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Catered lunch daily

Dinner stipend

$150/month wellness benefit

401(k) plan

Paid parental leave

Commuter benefits

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Job summary

A leading AI startup in New York is seeking a Staff Engineer to lead backend initiatives and shape technical direction. You will architect systems, tackle high-stakes projects, and mentor engineers. Ideal candidates should have over 7 years of backend engineering experience, strong system design skills, and a passion for hands-on development. Giga offers a competitive compensation package and various employee benefits designed to support your well-being and work-life balance.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of backend engineering experience with leading complex projects.
• Opinions on system architecture and ability to articulate tradeoffs.
• Capacity to transform vague problems into clear technical approaches.

Responsibilities

• Drive technical initiatives and system architecture design.
• Own ambiguous projects that impact business significantly.
• Set standards for code review and engineering quality.

Skills

Backend engineering experience (7+ years)

System architecture

Technical strategy

Code review standards

Problem-solving

Tools

Python (Django/FastAPI)

TypeScript (Node.js)

AWS

Kubernetes

Postgres

Job description

About Giga

Giga has recently raised a $61M Series A and has several paying customers, including DoorDash. We’re building the next generation of customer experience — real-time AI agents that can understand emotion, resolve issues instantly, and scale across the world’s largest enterprises.

It’s an exciting inflection point for the company. While we have been successful, we have larger ambitions. Our goal is to become the go-to AI platform for all enterprise automation, powered by our voice superintelligence. To achieve this, we need more great engineers. The work affects millions of people every day and our engineers have autonomy and make true impact. This opportunity is unique because we have brilliant founders, have found commercial success, and see a clear path to becoming a generational company. Some further info about us:

• Voice AI startup Giga raises $61M Series A
• DoorDash and Giga Partnership

Giga builds AI agents trusted by the largest B2C companies in the world. Industry leaders like DoorDash trust Giga with their most complex support and operations workflows across voice, chat, and email. If being a part of this resonates with you, please apply!

The Role

We’re looking for a staff engineer to help shape the technical direction of our backend systems. You'll lead complex projects, make architectural decisions that affect the whole platform, and raise the bar for engineering quality across the team.

This is a role for someone who wants to build, not just advise. You'll write code, own systems, and ship, but you'll also be expected to think beyond your immediate work to identify what the team should be building next and how we should build it.

What You’ll Work On

You’ll drive technical initiatives across the company. Some examples:

• System architecture: Designing how our agent infrastructure should evolve as we scale, making tradeoffs between speed, reliability, and complexity.
• Hard technical problems: Owning the most ambiguous, highest‑stakes projects where getting it wrong would hurt the business.
• Technical strategy: Identifying gaps in our systems before they become problems and building the case for addressing them.
• Engineering quality: Setting standards for code review, system design, and operational excellence through your own work.

At the staff level, you'll work across team boundaries and be responsible for outcomes beyond your individual output. You'll mentor other engineers and help them grow, but through collaboration on real work rather than formal management.

Tech Stack

• Backend: Python (Django/FastAPI), TypeScript (Node.js)
• Infrastructure: AWS, Modal, Kubernetes, Postgres
• Frontend: TypeScript, Next.js (you’ll interact with this when needed)

You Might Be a Fit If You

• Have 7+ years of backend engineering experience, with a track record of leading complex projects.
• Have opinions about how systems should be built, and can articulate the tradeoffs behind those opinions.
• Can take a vague problem and turn it into a clear technical approach without much guidance.
• Write excellent code and hold others to a high standard without being a bottleneck.
• Are energized by hard problems and comfortable with uncertainty.
• Want to be hands‑on at a company where staff engineers ship code, not just review it.
• Have built systems that scaled and understand what breaks at each order of magnitude.

Perks & Benefits

• Catered lunch daily
• Dinner stipend
• $150/month wellness benefit (gym, fitness classes, mental health)
• 401(k) plan
• Paid parental leave (12 weeks maternal, 6 weeks paternal)
• Commuter benefits
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Giga is an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to providing equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Compensation Range: $300K - $500K